So, it’s official: Final Fantasy XV has been delayed. Rumours sprang up over the weekend, based on conversations with retail sources and backed up by photos of marketing materials, but yesterday director Hajime Tabata confirmed it to be true, with the long-in-development title being bumped from its original date of September 30th to November 29th.

In a video, which you can see below, Tabata explained that, while the game went gold a few days ago and the team had begun work on a day one patch, they had ultimately decided to push the release back to make sure these fixes could be pressed to the game discs that we’ll all be buying at retail. “Our objective with Final Fantasy XV was to deliver a Final Fantasy of the highest possible quality, to every single person who buys the game,” said Tabata, who went on to explain that, because not everyone who buys the game would be able to apply the patch, the team felt the best course of action was a short delay. Not only will the patch improve the game’s performance and overall polish, it will also contain “pretty substantial content,” added Tabata.

And so, we’ll be waiting a further two months to get our grubby mitts on the game. And while it might seem a ridiculous thing to say about a game that was announced ten years ago, it’s probably for the best they don’t rush this one out before it’s done. Not only are there a decade of fan expectations riding on it, but possibly the Final Fantasy brand itself, which has taken a bit of a battering in the wake of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy and the disastrous launch of Final Fantasy XIV Online. While XIV 2.0 has seen an enormous turnaround to become a massive success, the brand is still in a bit of a precarious situation. Square Enix needs this one to be a hit.

Perhaps as some form of consolation, we have been treated to some new content to tide us over for a bit. First off, we now have the first twelve minutes of CGI tie-in movie Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV available to watch on YouTube. The film, which takes place just before the start of the game, begins with a scene-setting narration from Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, the princess of Tenebrae, who brings us up to speed on the state of the world, and the conflict between the magical nation of Lucis and the militaristic empire of Niflheim, who desire the crystal that powers Lucis’ prosperity. As a young Noctis visits Tenebrae with his father, the kingdom is attacked by Niflheim soldiers in an attempt on the Lucian royalty’s lives. Noctis and his father escape, but Tenebrae comes under imperial rule.

Later, we see a battle between Lucis’ Kingsglaive, an elite force of soldiers bestowed with the power of Lucis’ crystal, and the invading forces of Niflheim, made up of human and mechanical soldiers, as well as an assortment of quite horrific looking monsters, including enormous behemoths. There’s even a cameo from a ‘daemon’ that fans of Final Fantasy VII will recognise. It’s been a fair while since we’ve had a CGI film out of Square Enix, and it’s clear to see the upgrade from Advent Children; Kingsglaive simply looks photorealistic at times, especially where character faces are concerned. The editing can feel a little schizophrenic during action scenes, as if the director was on a days-long Red Bull binge, but it does serve to give this first huge battle a frantic feel, and it’s certainly a hell of a spectacle, as the two forces clash over an abandoned town on the edge of a huge, precipitous rock bridge.

Ultimately, this quick look at Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV isn’t going to sate your thirst for anything FFXV-related, as it’s likely to just leave you wanting more. At least the full film will be available to download in just two weeks’ time.

The second bit of new content has just been made available to coincide with the start of Gamescom in Cologne, where the game is playable from the start. Unsurprisingly, it’s a gameplay video from the very beginning of the game, and it runs for almost an hour. This footage has been taken from the gold master version mentioned in Tabata’s apology video, so we can get a look at how the game runs at this stage in development, before the addition of what would have been the day one patch. Fans who played last year’s Episode Duscae will feel immediately at home as, after a rather interesting bit of foreshadowing, the game begins with Noctis and his retinue arriving at the Hammerhead garage to get their broken down car fixed. Luckily, this time Cindy isn’t asking them to hunt down an enormous behemoth, and instead charges them with a bit of simple pest control to pay off their debt.

There are changes though. The party meet Cid almost immediately, and the Hammerhead itself isn’t actually in Duscae this time, but the neighbouring region of Leide. So if you’re sick of seeing the green fields and shimmering lakes of Duscae, at least now you can look at some parched, mountainous scrubland instead. Result? Throughout the fifty-minute clip, we get to see plenty of features of the game, taking in combat, quests, camping, driving, and even a smattering of cutscenes, though with some judicious editing to make sure we aren’t spoiled too much. The footage comes from the first three chapters, which Famitsu report took them 25 hours to get through, so we’re getting a pretty in-depth look at the early stages of the game here.

Final Fantasy XV looks to be in pretty great shape from this extended look, and though it’s a pain to see it delayed just as it was getting close enough to grasp, we can’t complain about a bit of extra time to polish it up to a pristine shine. And besides, after ten years, what’s a couple of extra months?

Though GameSpot managed to spill the beans mere hours before Square Enix’s Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV event in Los Angeles last night, spoiling the upcoming title’s release date in a since-removed YouTube video, they certainly didn’t manage to ruin all the surprises. Square Enix’s social media accounts had promised that fans of the long-running Final Fantasy saga should tune in regardless, promising they’d be missing out if they didn’t watch. And, as it turns out, they were absolutely spot on, as Uncovered featured a bevy of reveals, announcements and surprises, the first of which was Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, opening the show.

Taking the stage to rapturous applause, Sakaguchi-san talked about how he views the series as his child, and much like a child, a parent often wonders whether they are on the right path or not – a not so veiled reference to the franchise’s recent struggles that sent some ripples of laughter through the 6,000-strong audience, and set a playful, self-assured tone for the rest of the night. Though he hasn’t been involved with Final Fantasy for quite some time now, leaving Square Enix over a decade ago, he spoke about how he had a chance to sit down with Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, who told him that he planned to take the series back to its ‘challenger’ roots. This reassured Sakaguchi, who had always thought of Final Fantasy as something that always sought out new challenges, and it certainly looks like that’s what the team are hoping to do with Final Fantasy XV.

The main takeaway from Uncovered is that Square Enix seem to be incredibly bullish about Final Fantasy XV‘s chances at recapturing the public’s imagination. They’re going all out with this property, treating fans to a lavish event streamed around the world, with Final Fantasy royalty in the house – as well as Sakaguchi-san, long-standing series artist Yoshitaka Amano, FFXV composer Yoko Shimomura and director Hajime Tabata were all in attendance. Last night’s event wasn’t just to generate hype for the new game, which we now know will be launching worldwide on September 30th (yes, this year); it was also to announce that Final Fantasy XV will be accompanied by its very own compilation of expanded material. Years after Final Fantasy VII’s release, with its legacy already assured, Square Enix began the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. With Final Fantasy XV, they’re establishing it as its very own metaseries right now.

In an astonishing display of confidence, last night Square Enix, via presenters Greg Miller and Tim Gettys of Kinda Funny Games, announced that Final Fantasy XV will be getting a five-part anime prequel series, a feature-length CG movie, and a mobile app minigame. They’re going all-in with this, turning Final Fantasy XV into a complete cross-media sub-franchise of its own, so let’s talk about each of those in a bit more detail. Brotherhood, the anime prequel, stars the game’s four main characters – Noctis, Ignis, Gladio and Prompto – and serves as a direct prequel to the game, promising to elaborate on the history and bonds between our heroes. Made by A-1 Pictures, the animation house behind the likes of Sword Art Online, the five episodes will be free to watch on Square Enix’s YouTube page, and the first one is already available to watch now. I’ll be writing about that in more depth in a separate piece.

Kingsglaive is the name of the CG movie, a feature-length film in the vein of 2005’s Final Fantasy VII sequel Advent Children, and it focuses on the characters of Noctis’ father King Regis of Lucis, Noctis’ betrothed, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, and the soldier Nyx, a member of the titular Kingsglaive, an elite unit commanded by King Regis as they try to push back Niflheim’s imperial army. In another show of confidence, the film will feature an all-star cast, with Sean Bean, Lena Headey and Aaron Paul starring as Regis, Luna and Nyx respectively, though it’s not yet clear whether these same actors will reprise their roles in the game itself (or whether Nyx will even appear in-game). It certainly doesn’t seem to be the case, going by the game’s latest trailer, in which Regis sports an American accent, but time will tell. Kingsglaive will be available to stream and download worldwide sometime this year, and you can see the trailer below.

And then there’s Justice Monsters Five, a minigame that appears and is playable within Final Fantasy XV. Existing within the game’s fiction – we see our heroes excitedly come across a table in a diner – Justice Monsters Five appears to be some kind of pinball/battling hybrid featuring iconic Final Fantasy monsters. Leading up to its unveiling, names like Tetra Master, Triple Triad, Blitzball and Chocobo Racing were bandied about, so we can assume that Justice Monsters Five will be the main minigame in Final Fantasy XV. But it won’t just exist inside the game of course, as it will be coming to iOS, Android and Windows 10 as a standalone app, so you can get your Justice Monsters Five fix on the go.

While there was quite a focus on the supplemental, expanded universe content during the Uncovered event, that’s not to say we didn’t get a good look at the game itself. Viewers were treated to a few short gameplay clips featuring things such as chocobo riding (chocobos can jump, glide, and even drift around corners), and driving in the party’s car, the Regalia. Of course, an open world game with driving wouldn’t be complete without radio stations, and Final Fantasy XV doesn’t disappoint here, offering a selection of classic Final Fantasy songs from across the franchise’s entire history to cruise along to – we heard short snippets of the overworld theme from the first Final Fantasy game, as well as Sunleth Waterscape from XIII. As a huge fan of Final Fantasy music this is something that will make me very happy indeed, and I can imagine driving around the world for hours just listening and humming along to some classic FF tunes.

While driving around, we also see a car stopped at the side of the road, its occupants trying to flag down help, and it’s suggested that this is an example of some of the side content we’ll be seeing in the full game. Following that was a short clip of the party in battle, mostly showing off stuff that you’ll be familiar with if you played Episode Duscae last spring, with the addition of a short look at magic as we see Noctis manage to scare off an enormous Behemoth by casting Blizzara. Then we’re treated to a brief glimpse of an absolutely titanic Titan, and at this point it’s worth remembering that the summons in this game are going to be insane. We also saw a clip showcasing some of the beautiful, sprawling environments that we’ll be visiting throughout the world of Final Fantasy XV, including our first in-game look at the gorgeous, Venice-inspired city of Altissia. Final Fantasy XV has long been billed as “a Fantasy based on Reality’, but fans of the fantastical need not worry that the game will appear mundane; there seems to be plenty of fantastical elements and environments in there to justify the name, and you can see the clip shown last night below, courtesy of Youtuber YongYea. Honestly, it’s worth watching for the music alone, which is stunningly beautiful.

Before our final surprise of the night, there was time for a couple more announcements. First heard in the opening trailer, the theme song for Final Fantasy XV is a lush, orchestral reimagining of Ben E. King’s Stand by Me, performed by Florence and the Machine. I must admit that I thought it sounded incredibly out of place when it suddenly began, halfway through that trailer, even if does seem like an obvious song choice for a story about four friends heading out on an uncertain journey. But I think it’s going to grow on me. Florence Welch’s powerful vocal performance certainly sells the emotion of the piece, and as the trailer goes on it seems to fit more and more. If Square Enix must insist on this kind of thing, at least it’s a much better choice than Leona Lewis’ My Hands was for Final Fantasy XIII.

Perhaps most exciting of all, however, was the announcement of a new demo. This one isn’t tied to a purchase, unlike the Episode Duscae demo that accompanied Final Fantasy Type-0 HD last year, so it’s available for everyone to try on both PS4 and Xbox One. Titled the ‘Platinum Demo’, it begins with a strange premise; you control kid Noctis as he journeys through a dream, guided by Carbuncle as he makes his way to the royal citadel, armed only with a toy sword and a squeaky hammer. It sounds odd, but the good thing is you don’t have to wait to find out just how weird it is, as the demo is live on both storefronts right now. I haven’t yet had a chance to play it myself, so, like with the Brotherhood anime, I’ll be writing up some impressions, complete with video, a little later, much like I did last year with Episode Duscae.

And so we were coming to the end of the Uncovered event, with Director Hajime Tabata taking to the stage to announce the release date that we all already knew. This didn’t mean the stream ended without a surprise, however; Tabata had recently teased that the team had determined how to include airship travel in the game, a core FF motif that has been essentially missing from the last few main series titles that fans really want back. At the very end of an epic, extended trailer, we see the party’s flash car sprout wings and take to the skies. If I’m being honest, I found it to be a little goofy, as the car begins to transform and a pair of wings fold out before it rather quickly takes off. Hopefully it’s just one method of transport – the same trailer shows the boys speeding across the water in a yacht, for instance.

Still, the thought of driving, boating and flying around this massive world is tantalising, and with all of last night’s announcements still ringing in the ears, today is a good day to be a Final Fantasy fan. Square Enix seem hugely confident about the prospects of this long-in-development epic and its chances at winning back the limelight and returning to the enormous, world-conquering franchise it used to be. And I for one cannot wait to dive right in and experience it. I’ll have to wait until September of course, but what’s another six months when you’ve been dreaming of it for ten years?

See the epic extended trailer for Final Fantasy XV, complete with flying transformer car, below.

Star Ocean : Integrity and Faithlessness, the fifth main instalment of the long-running sci-fi/anime jrpg series, will see release in the west this summer. The release window was announced in a Square Enix livestream, entitled Star Log #1, this week. It was also announced that the western release will include dual audio options, and while the game will be available for both PS3 and PS4 in Japan, we’ll be getting the PS4 version only.

The stream marks the beginning of Square Enix’s western marketing for the game, and we’re promised more to come in the months leading up to release. In this first broadcast, we learned some details on the story, which takes place between Star Oceans 2 and 3, and also got a look into a couple of the main characters. Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is set on the planet of Faykreed, some 6,000 lightyears from Earth, and our leading man, Fidel Camuze, is a swordsman from the village of Sthal. He’s joined by Miki Sauvester, his childhood friend and the party’s healer, who refers to Fidel as ‘Fiddly’. Which is a bit odd, quite frankly. Together, they set out to protect a young amnesiac girl called Relia, who is being targeted by the story’s antagonists for reasons as yet unknown.

Developed by series’ creators tri-Ace, Integrity and Faithlessness will be the first new entry in the franchise since Star Ocean: The Last Hope, which launched to somewhat muted reviews on Xbox 360 in 2009. Since tri-Ace’s acquisition in February last year by Nepro Japan, a mobile company, fans had thought the series effectively dead, at least on home console, and gave up hope of ever seeing another mainline Star Ocean game. Yet here we are, mere months away from a new instalment on PS4.

While the previous game drew some ire for attempting to appeal more directly to western gamers, producer Shuichi Kobayashi told VentureBeat that Star Ocean V will be more true to the series’ earlier entries: “[I]n Star Ocean IV, we did exactly that. We wanted to give the visual element which we believed would be appealing to western gamers, and it didn’t really work for either western or Japanese fans. It was a bit of a muddle, really. We don’t want to repeat that. We just want to establish our image and stick with it.” He continued, “[i]n Star Ocean V, we’d like to bring back the attitude we had in the first three games. Our priority is going to be to push out a very tri-Ace creative direction. That’s our main pillar and we’ll stick with it. Story-wise and visual-wise, number five is going to have the feel of a direct sequel to Star Oceans one, two, and three. It’ll be very different from Star Ocean IV.”

The development team hope that the focus on their core strengths will reassure fans that tri-Ace still cares very much for the Star Ocean franchise. And that reassurance couldn’t come at a better time. We’re seeing something of a resurgence of the jRPG after a bit of a fallow period last generation, where many questioned if the genre would even survive. Not only are franchises that we thought lost coming back, but we’re even getting sequels to last-gen titles that we never thought we’d see; who would have thought just a couple of years ago that we’d be waiting on a new Star Ocean, a new Valkyria Chronicles on home console, or a Platinum-developed sequel to NieR, of all things. And then there’s Ni No Two-ni (yeah, I’m going with that), and after something of a lost generation for Final Fantasy, it looks like the venerable franchise may well recapture the public’s imagination with Final Fantasy XV, which is looking very promising indeed. It’s a good time to be a fan of jRPGs.

The livestream promised that we would find out the full release date “very soon”, and also promised that the announcement would come with some “very good news” – perhaps we’ll see a limited edition? The next Star Log, which will be focusing on the battle system, is scheduled for April 12th, so hopefully we’ll have more news in just a few weeks. Until then, you can watch the latest English trailer below.

Back in August last year, Japanese publisher Degica announced that they’d be bringing the manic bullet hell offerings of boutique shmup purveyor Cave to Steam, beginning in the winter. The first game to see release was the cult classic Mushihimesama, the developer’s 2004 vertical shmup that sees the titular Bug Princess flying through lush forests shooting down enormous insects and dodging hundreds upon hundreds of bullets, which hit Valve’s digital storefront back in November.

Fans speculated over what game would come next. Would it be something from the DonPachi series? Ketsui, Perhaps? Or maybe Guwange! Well, now we know, as a store page has popped up, letting us know that March 10th will bring us Deathsmiles, a horizontal shooter starring a group of gothic Lolita-styled teenage angels and their familiars as they fly about spooky forests and creepy graveyards, jinking through curtains of angry pink bullets fired from all sorts of occult-styled monsters like minotaurs, cyclopes, and, uh… a demonic tree that throws grinning apples at you, I guess.

Deathsmiles probably wouldn’t have been the first (or, rather, second) choice for most fans, but I’m glad it’s coming. Though I was aware of the company’s games beforehand, Deathsmiles was the first Cave title I played, as it released on Xbox 360 back in February 2011. It’s also a pretty good shout if you’re looking to get into bullet hell shooters, as it’s a little more noob friendly than something like Mushihimesama, offering the option to play stages out of order and select one of three difficulty levels, while player characters have a pool of life points and levels generally feature more forgiving bullet patterns. Of course, it’s still got bags of depth when it comes to player strategy and high-score potential, and despite being a bit of an easier on-ramp to the bullet hell subgenre, it’s still not a game I’m ever likely to 1CC.

Like the Xbox 360 release, the Steam version will feature six different game versions, including Mega Black Label, which was originally a very limited remixed mode available in select arcades that added a new playable character, a new stage, and various scoring and difficulty changes. You can view the launch trailer below.

I’ll be happily double-dipping next month, and also looking forward to whichever title comes next. Personally, I’d love to get my hands on Deathsmiles II, which never made it to Europe. But maybe not right away – how about DoDonPachi Resurrection next, eh?

A quick (mildly passive-aggressive) heads-up for the PS4 owners among you: Gravity Rush Remastered hits UK shop shelves today, and you should absolutely go and buy a copy.

Originally released on PlayStation Vita back in 2012, Gravity Rush has since become a cult favourite for fans of the under-appreciated handheld, and now it’s coming to a wider audience, fans are hoping it can attract a whole new fanbase on home console. Honestly, it’s a miracle we’re getting a sequel, which is coming to PS4 sometime this year, so if you never had access to a Vita, now’s the time to play this unique, wonderful game from Sony’s Japan Studio.

The Vita game had a wonderful effect where the horizon became a sort of abstract sketch to mask the draw distance. Thankfully, Bluepoint have retained the effect on PS4. I loved it then and I love it now.

So what is Gravity Rush, exactly? I’m glad you asked. It’s a mission-based open world game, though it’s different from any you’ve played before. Well, maybe Crackdown is the closest thing to it – certainly in the way that collecting gems to power up Kat is just as addictive as hunting down Crackdown‘s agility orbs – but even then the two games aren’t particularly alike. It’s effectively a superhero origin story, starring a teenage amnesiac, and you’re already beginning to roll your eyes and groan, imagining lots of attitude and a dark backstory. Well, it’s the opposite of that. Gravity Rush‘s protagonist, Kat, has no backstory. And she doesn’t have much of an attitude, either. She wakes up one day in the city of Hekseville with no memory of who or where she is, finds she has the power to manipulate gravity through a mysterious cat she names Dusty, and then she promptly sets out to cheerfully help the people of the city as they find themselves under attack from strange monsters called Nevi.

I said Kat can control gravity, remember? Well, the whole game is built around that. With the tap of a button, you can untether her from gravity altogether, and then decide at will which direction you want to ‘fall’. The city is one huge playground for your to fling yourself around – through, over and under, as Hekseville rather strangely just floats in a void. The ability to realign gravity means Kat can walk on walls, drop horizontally to travel at speed, or simply just fall into the sky. You can see what I mean in the video below, which shows ten minutes of early-game play, as our heroine sets up a home for herself.

I love games that make it a joy just simply getting around the world and exploring, and in that respect, Gravity Rush is one of the best. Add to that beautiful art, a soundtrack with serious earworm potential and a likeable, engaging lead and you’ve got something really special. The conversion has been masterfully handled by remaster specialists Bluepoint, who have done a wonderful job bringing the game up to PS4 standards while respecting the art and aesthetic of the Vita original, and at just half the price of a standard new game, how can you say no?

Well, don’t. Go and grab a copy and maybe we can all make sure that Gravity Rush 2 is a smashing success. Sony may have sent this game out to die with no marketing, but we can show them that unique games like this have a place in the market.

Late last night Platinum Games’ Yusuke Hashimoto and Akiko Kuroda announced, via the wonderful medium of the Nintendo Direct broadcast, that the Wii U exclusive will launch on October 24th, and it’ll come in three flavours for those of us in Europe.

First up, we’ll be getting the solus version, which contains Bayonetta 2 and… nothing else. Nope, it doesn’t come with a copy of the Wii U port of the first Bayonetta. If you want that, you’ll have to plump for the Special Edition, which packs both games, each in their own game cases, into a card slipcase.

But then there’s the First Print Edition. This is more like the kind of product you’d expect to carry a ‘special edition’ label, packed in an exclusive box (apparently bound in leather) shaped like the Book of Angels, the in-game tome that details the Hierarchy of Laguna. This lovely box contains both games in their own game cases, with a bonus art book contained within the packaging itself. You can see the First Print Edition below, and as an aside, it’s nice to see the cover art for the first game mirroring the original, Kamiya-approved Japanese art from the original release.

I’m sure it’s common knowledge by now that I am a sucker for a limited edition, so it should come as no surprise that I wanted this as soon as it was announced. It’s a shame that the art book isn’t a proper book, especially for a game like Bayonetta that has incredible artwork (seriously – hunt down a copy of The Eyes of Bayonetta if you don’t believe me), but I’ll still eagerly pore over those pages. It appears to be exclusive to Game in the UK (at least at the time of writing), costs £59.99 and is limited to 15,300 units, so if you want one you’d better jump in and secure a pre-order now. I’ve already secured mine.

Also announced in last night’s broadcast, which I’ve embedded at the bottom of this piece, was a new Nintendo-themed outfit for Bayonetta to wear. I thought the Peach, Samus and Link costumes were a little bit odd when they were announced back at E3, but this one… this is something else.

Why God, why?! What did we do to deserve this!?

Truly, I’m sorry you had to see that.

But anyway, that can happily be ignored in favour of the stunning action Bayonetta 2 will be bringing us when it launches in seven weeks. The Direct itself is a good watch, and takes time to explain a few things for those new to the series, but keep watching for the epic lengthy trailer at the end – it looks utterly mental, exactly the kind of thing I’d expect from one of my favourite games of the last five years. It looks like Platinum are throwing everything they’ve got into this game, and I can’t wait to get my mitts on it.

Nintendo and Tecmo Koei have announced the next instalment in the Project Zero series via a lengthy, creepy trailer.

Titled Zero: Nuregarasu no Miko (The Raven-haired Shrine Maiden), it will be released on September 27th in Japan (possibly in an effort to tie into the upcoming Zero film). As Nintendo co-owns the rights to future titles in the series, the game will of course be an exclusive for the Wii U.

The game stars protagonist Yuri Kozukata, who appears to have the ability to see those that are trapped in the land of the dead and return them to reality. As a result of this ability, she is asked to track someone down in Hikamiyami, a sacred mountain with a huge lake at its summit.

The game will apparently be the largest instalment yet in the series, and it seems from the trailer that water will play a large role, with the rain pouring down on Yuri certainly adding to the atmosphere as she wades through shallow pools and winds her way around dark, twisting mountain paths with only a torch to light her way. The series trademark camera obscura returns, and it seems that the Wii U’s gamepad will be used both for this mechanic as well as to show what the world looks like through Yuri’s eyes.

With Nintendo struggling to sell consoles and a number of third parties pushing releases back (or abandoning the platform altogether), it’s good to see a developer keeping the faith and announcing new projects. What’s even better is that their game will be using the GamePad for something other than simple off-screen play – though it’s to be expected, given Project Zero’s central camera gimmick; Tecmo Koei would be crazy not to leverage the second screen of the GamePad for the camera obscura view, and it’ll be interesting to see how they can keep players on their toes by dividing attention between the two screens.

What’s surprising is how close to release Nuregarasu no Miko is. How often do we see a game being formally unveiled only two months before release? It’s worth remembering that Tecmo Koei also has Omega Force and Team Ninja working on fellow Wii U exclusive Hyrule Warriors, which will also see release in September.

Of course, what those of us outside of Japan have to worry about is whether the game will reach our shores at all. Nintendo decided not to release the last title in the series, 2008’s Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen, outside of their home territory at all, prompting a fan translation effort.

However, with over 100 million Wiis sold in the last generation of consoles, Nintendo could afford to ignore worldwide releases for the odd exclusive (indeed, the US branch originally had no plans to localise the Operation Rainfall titles for the North American region). But with the Wii U finding difficulty in the market, Nintendo will surely want to do everything they can to improve the image of the console among gamers. They had a fantastic E3, and opinions around the Wii U appear to be slowly changing. If they want to keep up the momentum, coming out and announcing a worldwide release for a new Project Zero would be a great way to do it.